KEIR Starmer has been taken to task over his decision to make the Winter Fuel Payment means-tested after an SNP MP pointed out previous concerns he had expressed over pensioners heating their homes.
Brendan O’Hara told the Prime Minister at PMQs he had been speaking to pensioners in South Lochaber at the weekend who remain confused as to why Starmer’s government decided to ditch the payment being universal.
The move was apparently made as part of efforts to plug a reported £20 billion black hole left by the previous government.
O’Hara laid out how pensioners had referred to Starmer, saying in the past that he feared what winter would be like for pensioners when he was the leader of the opposition.
The Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber MP said: “I was in South Lochaber at the weekend speaking to pensioners who still cannot understand why the Prime Minister chose to take away their Winter Fuel Payment.
“One of them remembered from just two years ago the then leader of the opposition saying ‘looking ahead to winter is frightening, I have met pensioners who have no idea how they will heat their home’.
“And she asked me to ask you Prime Minister, whatever happened to that guy?”
Starmer responded by saying ditching the payment for all but the poorest pensioners was part of “tough decisions” the Government had to make in the Budget, but still argued pensioners would be better off.
As he [O’Hara] knows from previous answers, we’ve taken tough decisions in this budget to deal with the situation that we have faced,” Starmer said.
“Because of that we have stabilised the economy which means we can commit to the triple lock.
“Because of the triple lock pensioners will be better off. I’ll take no lectures from his party about running the economy. Their record in Scotland is terrible.”
The National reported last week how the SNP are “considering” whether to reverse the winter fuel cut.
Public Finance Minister Ivan McKee hinted the Scottish Government could use a funding uplift from Westminster to mitigate the cut.
Previously, the Scottish Government said it would have “no choice” but to replicate the cut in Scotland.
